Unemployment: The Hardest-Hit States (CHART)

Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any state at 14.1 percent, a distinction the state has held for 25 of the last 26 months.

The next-highest unemployment rates after Michigan's were found in Oregon (12.4 percent), Rhode Island and South Carolina (12.1 percent), and California (11.5 percent), according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday. The unemployment rate reached double-digits in five states and the District of Columbia in May. The national rate is 9.4 percent.

Some economists have touted "green shoots" and talked up the recession as "bottoming out" this year. But the misplaced optimism hasn't reached everybody.

Progressive economists say that unemployment will likely continue to rise nationwide into 2010. And while economists cheered lower-than-expected increases in job losses for May, the state-by-state breakdown reveals the unevenness of the recession.

Optimism "hasn't been a problem in Michigan," said Judy Putnam, spokeswoman for the Michigan League for Human Services, in an interview with the Huffington Post. "There were no signs of hope in our numbers."

Putnam said her organization is concerned that nearly 90,000 unemployed workers will exhaust their unemployment benefits before the end of the year. "Our biggest concern is that our safety net for folks coming off unemployment benefits has really shrunk. It's really not there," she said.

Putnam noted that if it includes marginally attached workers, unemployed folks who've quit looking for work, and forced part-timers, the "true" unemployment rate in Michigan is 17.2 percent.

Michigan also boasts the nation's weakest-performing metro area, Detroit, according to the Brookings Institution.

Here's a table from the Economic Policy Institute that compares state unemployment levels:

20090619-unemployment-by-state -

Comments

[ibsteve2u]

The problem with those state-by-state figures is that they don't really encompass reality, because the reality is that manufacturing regions cross state boundaries.

For instance, pockets of employment in Pittsburgh and Columbus can hide the dark reality that is the Youngstown/Warren/Sharon area, where the exportation of American jobs and the body blows mismanagement has delivered to the American auto industry is hammering the citizens of two states, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

And that is but one example.

[greencat2]

Alright I can tell this comment will be unpopular but.....news has also shown that farmers are crying for people to pick crops. Everyone is up in arms about illegal Mexicans and others willing to do these jobs. Why don't some of these long-term unemployed people take these jobs keep them in America for Americans and still earn a living? Maybe they feel they are too good to earn an honest dollar when the government is willing to give them a free ride via "benefits". I have an education but if it came to keeping my home and family, yeah I'd be picking onions too. The Great Depression saw a lot of people go to do dirty jobs far from home to take care of their families, what makes this generation so special that taking on menial jobs for a paycheck is so beneath them? The unemployment rate will start dropping when the false sense of entitlement bites the dust.

[wsblake]

Picking crops is a poor example to illustrate the problem. How about the food service and hospitality industry, and construction. Those industries hire millions of illegal aliens, taking jobs that could be going to American citizens.

[kynigos]

The illegal immigrant farm-hand, hospitality worker, construction and food service worker problem could be fixed by forcing Mexican and Central American governments to raise their wages to US wage levels, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Those governments have deliberately kept workers wages low for the benefit of US multinationals. Scams like NAFTA and CAFTA have not yet helped the workers of Mexico or Central America, so they come to wherever they have a chance for economic improvement.

The inequities exist because elite wealth and powermonger in Mexico and Central America have hoarded their wealth and power since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors. Instead of making Mexico and Central America more like the US, big US Corporations are making the US economy more like that of Mexico, mostly by exporting blue-collar and professional jobs to China, India and elsewhere.

[PiscesPrincess]

keeping my home and family, yeah I'd be picking onions too

you can talk all you want about picking onions to keep food on the table but I do not see that happening anytime soon and I will tell you why.
for generations, people born and raised in this country have refused to pick crops. It is the Most Backbreaking work you will Ever ever do, Son.
Believe me.
You would do it if you were starving. and only then.

[Okay]

A bit of back breaking work is what many americans truly need. Not everyone likes to work in the field but most of us can if we have to. We aren't starving as a nation so many will continue their lives believing in their entitlements and their beliefs the government can fix all their problems...but sooner or later somebody is going to have to work again for success.

[kynigos]

I understand that the farmers complain that they can't raise their prices in order to pay higher wages to their pickers. Most of the "small" farmers barely eke out a living, themselves. The prices they get for their crops are often dictated by big corporations and supermarket chains and corporate food processing companies. If our immigration laws and labor laws were strictly enforced, all farmers would then be able operate on a more level playing field and could raise prices by whatever level necessary in order to pay decent wages to their pickers.

Most migrant pickers could not survive on their meager wages if they had to support their families in the US. So, if anyone is willing to spend a few years learning to be a master picker, earning below US minimum wage on an annualized basis, and are willing to move their family to a slum in Mexico or encampment in Guatemala so that they can send their paltry earnings to them, then should go for it.

[Just4theHalibut]

I think that is an excellent comment. ( I had to laugh at another article in this section, where the yuppie author waxes poetic about an arugula salad produced in her new vegie garden that her son--and "her gardener" !!-- had put in their backyard.) Most Americans are CLUELESS about where their food comes from, they are just "entitled" to it.
I've picked fruit, fished and worked in a cannery in my youth.
It may well BE an unpopular idea, but I would go further and recommend a year of national service for all of our youth where at least half of it is spent in the fields and orchards of American. Maybe if the average American had to do this, some of theconditions that make such field work so difficult might improve?

[kynigos]

I have a few friends who are farmers -- real farmers -- with hundreds of acres of crops including corn, onions, asparagus, beans, apples, cherries, and more. I have helped them with hay mowing, bailing and spreading manure -- anything that I can do from the seat of a tractor. However, when it comes to picking crops, they don't want me touching anything.

Picking crops properly and quickly without damaging the produce or the cornstalk or the tree, etc., is a learned skill. If I were to dedicate myself to learning such skills, I could probably become as good at it as the Mexicans and Guatemalans (legal or ilegal) who do those jobs for a pittance. These pickers also don't work as individuals -- they work as teams that often consist of immediate family members who have trained and worked together for years. The farmers who are crying for someone to pick their crops are really crying for some highly skilled teams of pickers who will work for a pittance to ensure the financial success of those farmers.

[HerAlterEgo]

LMFAO!!! What crops are available to pick in Michigan between November and June? Michigan has 8 months of winter.

[zakwouldhave]

Check out South Carolina. Governor sure has his priorities straight. But go ahead and keep electing people who think governing means governing as little as possible.

[BruceCarson]

Yeah or Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Louissiana. Those states are disasters! Oh wait. Actually, what states consistently run by Democrats are doing well? If there is a party trend here, then it's one that makes Democrats look bad so I think it would be wise to drop your line of reasoning because it's a dead end for us.

I dislike Republicans as well. Part of the problem is that their policies are stealing jobs from states which actually respect workers rights and empower unions (Michigan). This map is a clear evidence of why we need national card check law and an ending of "right to work" laws.

[oldmilitant]

Look at CA under Repub leadership. Used to be the World's 5th largest economy. Now, under, "the Governator"....

[twinkledawnn]

I don't understand your point? TX, ND, SD, Utah and Louissiana all have Republican Governors.

[rshrink]

The other day, in my town, there was an opening for a part time kitchen person. No benefits and close to minimum wage. 200 people applied for that position. Is this an employers market or what?

[Scent]

If that is bad news, how about the unemployment of 30 to 40 % in antions we have interest in? - Meaning: where big US businesses make billions on the backs of the most poor people on the planet?

I know we are bad off. But this is the time we also have to realize our accountability for crimes committed in our name to make people of other nations poorer and more strangled than we ever were. If we only solve the problems here we run the risk of doing it on the backs of far poorer nations. - AGAIN.

When I read about what US businesses did in South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe the strongest feeling is not fear of bombs being put into our lap by those we helped torture and massacre.

The strongest feeling is awe at how few bombs we get.

[Donnat]

Just as FDR created public works programs, Obama should create a green public works administration, building US infrastructure for mass transit, solar and wind power and green building practices. Bail Outs, on the other hand, should STOP.

[EuroRant1]

Exactly ... how's that go again?

Give a man a fish and you make him a beggar, but teach that man to fish ...

[PiscesPrincess]

I Do believe that is exactly what he is attempting to Do, Son.
Bail Outs were Bush's solution.
check it out.

[Vinca]

There's no issue more important than jobs. People are having to move in with their parent, who themselves are struggling to get by.

[americanalien]

It's Bush's fault. All of this started with his disastrous Administration.

[toldya]

ugh...no one person, president or not, is responsible for the entire collapse of the economy.

[EuroRant1]

How silly of you "americnalien" ...
You're absolutely correct "toldya" - how could such a disaster all of taken place in 8 short years under that embecile ... it took 28 years to get where we are today.

It all began with Reagan and his "voodoo economics" coined Reagonomics.

(Reagan, Bush the first, Clinton and then Bush the second which gave it the seal of approval.)

[illusionpainter]

The cause of all of this in my opinion is the decrease in middle class wages, the decrease in health care benefits for the middle class, the decrease in the retirement packages for the middle class, the outsourcing, trade imbalance to our detriment, the allowance of trade dumping by China and others, NAFTA agreement not be enforced, etc, etc, etc......

There was a Senator Byrd amendment passed several years ago to stop these practices or fines would be paid. No one enforces that law. Other countries now owe us $3.4 TRILLION in fines. That would take care of the deficit problem right there.

[Badger84]

You need to go to www.shadowstats.com to get a more accurate picture of unemployment. Sadly, the Clinton administration defined away discouraged workers.....and I don't consider Clinton a Democrat.

[tralfas]

I see a trend. The states with the highest unemployment have more often than not have Dem governors.

[illusionpainter]

And your point might be? Do you think Jennifer Granholm had anything to do with the auto industries lack of capital? Isn't funny how California has the worst deficit in the country and they have a Republican governor. Here in Michigan we are about #5 on the list for an ailing deficit yet as the article states we have been #1 in unemployment for 26 months. So again, what's your point?

[frantaylor]

Because those are the states that actually had economies in the first place. Honestly, how many jobs are there in those farming states?

[Donnat]

LOL, I saw the list of the states where economies were not causing layoffs and it was like South Dakota, Oklahoma...the reason they aren't laying off is because nobody wants to live there, so there's not more people than jobs.

[TheAntiNixon]

Looks like the 2008 electoral map...

[frantaylor]

Looks more like a map of who used to have an economy.

[kstuff]

The jobless rate in Michigan is hovering around 25%. And there is no real help in sight. During the First Great Depression, the government placed a moratorium on foreclosures. Yet, there has been no talk of this. What will stop this dismal economic spiral, if the government won't even step in.

[BarakCarpathia]

It was 7 under Bush

[Pettit]

Shall we try to get him back?

[PiscesPrincess]

are you Out of Your Mind? tsk.

[illusionpainter]

The decrease in outsourcing all of our job, FAIR TRADE and a STOP to TRADE DUMPING will help the economies improve immensely.

[BarakCarpathia]

I've heard it said that that would be a mistake for a number of reasons, but the thing that makes sense to me is...would we rather sell stuff to just us or to everybody else?

[ClubStyle DJ]

My question is (and it may have been asked)
What in the world is going to fix this?
What happened to the demand that for what ever product that all these unemployed people USED to do?
Is someone going to invent something that needs a plant or office in every state? that will employ every one?
Have any of you been to one of these job fair circus' (sp) over 1000 people for like 6 jobs in a field nobody can do?
I'm 49 and haven't been out of a job in over 30 years... References??? i don't even know if my last two employers personnel office is still in exsistance.
Any chance the unemployed can have the 401K (errr 201K) "penelty for early withdrawl waived?
Naah that would make too much sense... we can't have any of that.

[ClubStyle DJ]

corrections:
What happened to the demand for whatever products all these unemployed people used to make.
everyone
circuses
penalty
(my highschool english teacher was rolling in her grave)

[BarakCarpathia]

Change that we can believe in (a chit sandwich) and we are all about to take a bite out of it.

Just wait until this extra printed money gets into the economy, then your dollar will be worth even less.

401k? whats that? I've burned through about 140,000, it dropped 30% even before I could move it. I LOST money on that gig, there better not be a penalty.

Those columns should have the title, Bush's (dec. 07) presidency, .. Obama's Presidency.

hehehe

Don't say it, Clinton took credit. Hey it happens.

[Teckwreck]

So, does this mean that the message is not correct?

[kynigos]

No 401K penalty for early withdrawal if you are 55-years old or older, and have lost your job. I understand that you are 49, so that is not a big help to you, but may be for others. Take a look at the 401K rules about early withdrawals for hardship cases. Do a web search.

On the other hand, your 401K money is not subject to bankruptcy confiscation and cannot be accessed by your creditors. So, leaving the money in the 401K may be a better move. The assets in your account may appreciate substantially in the next ten years when you can withdraw without penalty, even if you are employed.

[citizen of the universe]

I live in CA, on my second round of unemployment, a year and 4 months job hunting, no temporary job since November 2008, my apt. was foreclosured on, and I had to return home at age 39 but, despite all that I'm still optimistic that things will get better. Right now, we all are making life decisions in the moment and that can be scary, but you have to believe it will get better. To those that are experiencing this economic pain HANG TOUGH it's definitely going to get better and just know that someone somewhere loves you!

[winstonian22]

Obama cares about you. He really does. I heard him say so.

[oldmilitant]

You really loved your boy Bush2, didn't you? He made JOKES about this:

"Someone musta been drunk on Wall Street."